Long Beach Port Breaks Ground on $1.5B Rail Yard Expansion
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other officials visited the Port of Long Beach on July 18 to break ground on a $1.5 billion rail yard expansion project that will more than triple the volume of rail cargo the dock can handle annually.
Dubbed “America’s Green Gateway,” the project will expand the existing rail yard and link the port to 30 major rail hubs around the country. It aims to streamline rail operations to reduce the environmental impact, traffic congestion and air pollution caused by cargo trucks.
“This work builds a rail network on a port that more than triples the volume of cargo that can move by rail to nearly 5 million containers a year — the kind of throughput that’ll keep America’s economy humming and keep costs down with benefits in every part of this country,” Buttigieg said.
This project and others funded by the Biden administration aim to make American supply chains more resilient against future disruptions and to fix supply chains upended by the pandemic, he said.
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Long Beach is one of the busiest seaports in the country, with 40% of all shipping containers in the United States coming through it or Los Angeles’ port. During the pandemic, these ports dealt with unprecedented gridlock, with dozens of ships waiting off-shore and shipping containers piling up on the docks because there weren’t enough trucks to transport them.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addresses attendees at the groundbreaking. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)
The project is scheduled for completion in 2032. The rail yard expansion means there will be a depot for fueling and servicing up to 30 trains at the same time and a place to assemble and break down trains up to 10,000 feet long. It will add 36 rail tracks to the existing 12 and expand the daily train capacity from seven to 17, contributing to meeting the Port of Long Beach’s goal of moving 35% of containers by on-dock rail.
According to project materials, one train can haul the equivalent of 750 truck trips’ worth of cargo. Without that train, the cargo would have to travel via truck to the downtown Los Angeles rail yards, increasing traffic on Interstate 710 and increasing truck pollution in surrounding communities.
Cordero
“We should never forget the single most important piece of all of this is the health impacts,” said U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, who was once the mayor of Long Beach. “The ability for families ... to breathe healthier air, to be free of cancer and asthma, to know that they can raise their children in a community that is cleaner and safer.”
Remarks were also delivered by Long Beach’s current mayor, Rex Richardson, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Bobby Olvera Jr., the port’s CEO, Mario Cordero, and others.
The rail upgrade is one of 41 projects across the U.S. that were awarded funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Mega Grant Program, receiving $283.4 million from the federal government. To date, it has acquired more than $643 million in grant funds. The investment is part of the $1 trillion in infrastructure investments included in a bipartisan law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
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